Child of the Forest
by monzepelmoon
Summary: A mysterious, young woman appears in the village, and Shessomaru knows her? Who is she, and why does she look similar to Shippo? Read to find out. This does not contain Ya-oi, this notice is for the perverts out there
1. Enter the Nine Tailed Fox

'I know that I'm making a sudden appearance in his life, but I want to meet my little brother. I want him to know that even though outo-san was killed he still has family,' I thought as I jumped from branch to branch of the trees in the Forest of Inuyasha. This wasn't the first time that I had come this way either, but it was the first time that I had been able to gather the courage to reveal myself to my little brother. I followed the scent that I knew was my brothers, and it lead into a human village, now I have nothing against humans, but after the way the certain humans have treated me once I revealed that I was a demon they tried to kill me so I was kind of apprehensive of going into the human town. It was as I was standing in indecision that I felt a familiar presence next to me, I looked to my side and saw none other than my mentor, Sesshomaru next to me. "Sesshomaru- sensei, what brings you here," I asked as I stood still my outer appearance that of a human.

"I believe that could ask you the same question my student," he replied to me as he stood silently next to me.

"My brother is here. I'm trying to decide whether or not to reveal myself to him. I know that my father never told him about me, but I want to know my little brother."

"I see then why don't you enter the village."

"Bad memories," I whispered as I looked up at the azure sky.

"I understand, but you know that I go into this village all the time, they will not hurt a demon unless said demon gives them cause to. I can go into the town with you if you like."

"Thank sensei that would be a great help to me." Sesshomaru just nodded as he led the way into the village me following closely behind him. As we walked into the town I was surprised that people waved to my teacher in a friendly manner as we entered.

It was then that I heard a welcome voice shouting, "Nee-chan," as a small body was thrown into my own. I looked down to be greeted by Rin's smiling face.

"Hello, Rin-chan, how are you?"

"I'm good, I didn't know that you were coming with Sesshomaru- sama."

"Remember how I said that I have a little brother," I asked as I hugged the young woman that I knew my teacher was in love with.

"Yea, I remember."

"He's in this village."

Then I heard an elderly voice call to Rin as it came closer I hid behind my teacher, Rin was one of the only humans that I knew that didn't run was they found out what I was or try to kill me either. I was wary of others and I had good reason to be. "Good day, Kaede-san," my teacher said to the older human that had come to stand next to Rin.

"Hello Sesshomaru-san, who is that young lady hiding behind you. She seems to be afraid."

"She was my student; she has been looking for her brother for a while now, ever since she completed her training anyway. She has a strong feeling that her brother resides here."

"I see, child come out please. Let me look at you," Kaede said in a kind voice. I slowly popped my head out from where I was hiding. I revealed first my turquoise eyes paired with my strawberry-blond hair and my slightly pointed elfish ears. When I completely came out from my hiding place I was revealed with my knee length hair as well as my nervous habit of wringing my hands. "My you're a pretty little demoness aren't you?"

"You can tell what I am," I asked my tinkling soprano voice full of surprise.

"I can tell that you are only in your most human looking form. Come child I want to introduce you to some other people, I will take her from here Sesshomaru-san why don't you visit with Rin-chan while I show this girl around?"

"Of course," my teacher said as he took Rin's hand and left me with the kind lady.

"What is your name child?"

"My name is Moriko."

"Ah! A child of the forest, the name suits you." We arrived in front of a small house. I smelled the air and was immediately on the guard I smelled danger, and it wasn't coming from the house. It was coming from somewhere behind it. Noticing my sudden change in attitude Kaede called to the people inside the house, "Songo, Miroku, there is a demon somewhere close by that isn't friendly." Out of the building appeared a demon hunter and a monk followed by three children. They looked at Kaede and then looked at me, but I was only watching them from the corner of my eye, I was much more concerned about the demon that was emitting malice like it was no tomorrow. Not waiting for the kind woman to say anything I dashed off my demon instincts taking over as I ran. When I came into contact with the demon I let myself show my more demon like qualities, my nine tails appeared swaying behind me and my ears moved to the top of my head.

"I see that you have come, Kubbyi," the creature hissed at me as I lowered myself into a stance that had become so familiar to me that I didn't even think about it anymore.

"What do you want with me," I said my eyes never leaving the form of the demon in front of me.

"I want your power of course. You are the most powerful kitsune, since your father was murdered by the Thunder brothers." It laughed at me as I started to shake violently in anger, but before I could retaliate someone or rather a group of some ones rushed into the clearing.

"Moriko- chan," Rin ran to me, the only one other than my teacher who dared to approach me when I was in my battle stance. The demon made a swipe to hit Rin, and I grabbed her and placed her next to Sesshomaru as I turned to face the snake demon that had tried to hurt my friend. I was now officially pissed. First he mentioned how my father was murdered for his pelt, and then he has the audacity to try and hurt my friend, this guy was dead. I shifted into my full demonic form, the form of a giant vixen (female fox).

"You're dead bastard," I growled as I latched onto the demon with my maw. I broke every bone in the prick before I used my claws to tear him to shreds. Once he was dead I reverted to my original "human" appearance as I fell to the ground.

As I passed out I heard someone ask my teacher a question, "Who is she?"

Third Person POV

Kohaku, caught Moriko as she fell, and then he turned to Sesshomaru just as Shippo asked, "Who is she?"

Sesshomaru looked at Moriko in Kohaku's arms, he remembered that she would almost always get knocked out when she had used her full demonic power, and it was partly because she didn't want to accidently hurt anyone when she passed out that she reverted once the battle was over. "She was one of my students, but right now she is looking for her younger brother, and she seems to think that he's in this village."

"So a She-fox is here looking for her family," Miroku asked as he watched his brother in-law hold the demoness absent mindedly close.

"Yup," Rin replied as she watched Moriko stir in Kohaku's arms, and turn to snuggle into his chest. "Oooo…I've never seen Moriko snuggle into someone before, Sesshomaru-sama did you see that?" Sesshomaru smiled slightly.

"Inuyasha sniffed the girl and then he lifted his nose into the air and his eyes turned to Shippo and he bluntly said, "They're related."

The look on Shippo's face was priceless. "My only family was my father," he sputtered.

It was then that Moriko opened her eyes and turned to face everyone, "N-not true, I'm your older sister, Moriko."

"I don't believee you, why weren't you there when I needed you," Shippo yelled at her.

"Please put me down," Moriko said softly to Kohaku, who set her on her feet. "You think that there was no reason for me to have left, and father not telling you about me? I asked him not to tell you about me! I couldn't risk that someone would come after my family looking for me…You have no idea what you are talking about," I sobbed.

Rin stepped up to me and gave me a hug. We were the same age, but sometimes Rin knew that I needed someone to comfort me or I would run into the forest and never return even if I wanted to come back. "Shippo, have you any idea as to what type of demon this young lady is," my teacher asked softly in a voice that I knew there was a lecture coming on.

"No, should I?"

"Yes, you should Shippo after all her type is a legend. She's the Kuybbi."

"Wait, what," Inuyasha yelled at his brother's announcement.

"She is the Kitsune of the nine tails."

"Do you mean what I think you mean," Inuyasha asked.

"That other demons after power would go after my family or my friends in order to lure me out, cause a vixen cannot leave her loved ones in peril. I left my family to protect them even though it hurt me to do so," Moriko whispered as Rin hugged her tighter. "I turned away from my family in order to protect them, and when I sensed that they were in danger I was there if they needed me. I was never far enough away from them for them to be in any true danger. A vixen protects her own, no matter what."

"It sounds like she was the demon that would sense nearby always watching us, but never doing anything unless there was a need to," Kagome said thoughtfully tapping her chin as she watched the girl that looked so much like an older female version of Shippo.

"Yes, that was me. Sesshomaru- sama made sure that we were always close because I wouldn't abandon my brother. I failed to protect my father," Moriko cried. "I am not losing the last member of my family to death even if he does hate me." This little speech made Kagome cry and she too embraced the she-fox with Rin.

"Feh, women," Inuyasha huffed as he smiled slightly. Kagome would always see the difference between a demon that was good or evil and this one was obviously one that had forced herself to put distance between herself and her family.

"Well, if I may say so, the child looks like she could use a place to stay," Kaede said as she took in the demon that lay on the forest floor, dead.

Moriko's POV

A few hours after I had revealed who I was to everyone, Kaede-san, who happened to be a priestess as I soon found out, told me that I would be staying with her and Rin. I was surprised to say the least, who lets a demon stay in their house? I can understand a half demon like my teacher's half brother, but to let me stay was odd. When I brought the subject up to her, she just smiled at me as she told me why, "You are not going to harm anyone of my people, but you would protect them because they helped to protect your brother." All I could do was nod dumbly as she led me into her hut.

The next morning I sat in the middle of a field of flowers meditating when I smelt someone sneaking up on me, or rather trying to. I smiled as I relaxed a bit; this was not an enemy that was coming up behind me. I sat on the grass in my yukata, my long strawberry-blond hair blowing softly around me in a mimic of the way my tails swirled when they manifested. As my would be spy got closer I called, "Shippo-kun why don't you stop trying to sneak up on me, and just sit next to me. I don't bite unless it's necessary."

"How did you know it was me?"

"I was the same when I was younger." I smiled my fangs shining in the sun.

"You know that I don't trust you right," my brother asked me as he sat down next to me.

"Yes, I know. It's only natural for you not to trust someone who was never in your life," I replied not looking at him. I closed my eyes letting the sun relax me. "You know you have some really good friends, brother mine."

"Yeah I know," he said smiling as he stood. "I have to go help Inuyasha with some stuff. Oh! And Kaede told me to tell you not to worry about any of the demons that are in the area, if they come near the village we have people who can deal with them instead of you tiring yourself out." I nodded as I watched the sun set.


	2. A Mysterious Illness and Angst

Child of the Forest

Chapter 2

I wasn't used to all the kindness that was being shown to me here. It wasn't that I had never experienced any form of it, was just that because of who I was; or rather what I was…not many tended show it to me. I was a very powerful kitsune after all. I thought to myself as I sat watching my younger brother play with the young children with just a ghost of a smile tilting my lips upward. It was so nice to see a little joy, even if it wasn't my own. I was still tired from the battle the day before; I wasn't even supposed to be up yet. The priestesses of the village both the elder and the younger had admonished me to stay in bed, but I was stubborn. I did not want to take my eyes off Shippo for any reason not even to rest. I had spent so much time just watching that I didn't know how to interact with others anymore. Kagome said last night that I was something called antisocial, not that I knew what that meant. Right now I was just happy that all the hardship that my baby brother had gone through was over and that he was well and happy. On more than one occasion in the past couple hours I've thought about quietly disappearing and just leaving it at that, but my condition that had only been aggravated yesterday due to the battle was not going to allow me to take that out.

No one knew that I was sick; it wasn't something that one could tell without going deep into my psyche. It was an illness that affected my abilities to control my yokai powers and while it was under control for the moment, if I pushed myself any further there could be a very big problem. Watching the games that the children were playing made me smile even if it was a small one and the expression felt strange on my face. I had spent much of my adolescence running and hiding from those that hunted me after they discovered that my father was no longer among the living. It was sad really because I had to protect the only family that I had left at the same time and while protecting him I was just putting him in more danger with my proximity. I negative musings were interrupted by the appearance of Rin who took the seat beside me on the grass and watched the children and Shippo. "Moriko-chan, what are you thinking about?" she asked as she brushed some nonexistent dirt from her yukata.

"The same things that I have had on my mind since before we made each other's acquaintance, Rin; I am thinking about how my brother may or may not be better off without me." She gave me look that clearly stated 'you have got to be kidding me' in none too subtle terms. Rin often thought that I was too hard on myself and that I should stop putting myself down. Yeah, that's going to happen when I beat Sesshomaru in a duel blind folded, which is to say never.

"Moriko, you have to stop thinking that everyone would be better off without you in their lives. There are a lot of people that would be dead if it weren't for your intervention. There is much good that you have done and the way that you keep putting what you have accomplished onto the fire and burning it like it is nothing is starting to piss me off," the younger girl stated as she folded her hands in her lap watching the children play.

This is one of the reasons that I hadn't left the little group that had become something a kin to a family to me, this young woman made sure that I never forgot the good that I had done and then she didn't let me get away with brooding either. I suppose it is also because of the fact that it is near to impossible to have a pity party of any kind around such a positive person. Sighing I leaned back so that I was leaning against my hands and looking up at the sky, it was a beautiful cerulean today. "I guess I should go rest and recover, huh?" I asked my companion.

"Yes, you should. You shouldn't have even been in that battle yesterday…you still haven't gotten rid of the illness that that demon gave you last year. Jaken thought that you would die right way, but somehow you've outlasted his theory. I wonder if the demon is one of the ones that are after your pelt." I looked at her, it was a rhetorical question she knew as well as I do that there is no chance in hell that that demon didn't want my power.

"Well, I'll go rest." Smiled as I got up to mask the pain that I was in, it was the only thing that Rin didn't see through and for that I was glad. I didn't need her worrying anymore than she already did. I made my way to the hut that I was sharing with Kaede and lay down on the pallet near the fire pit. I felt feverish and achy, but I would not say anything…little did I know however, was that someone had seen through my mask of cheerfulness.

**Moon-chan: I know, I know I just got around to updating this and it has been longer than a year, but I promise I will update sooner next time until review and what not. Caio**


	3. Screams and failure to hide

Child of the Forest

Chapter 3

Kagome watched the demoness with worried eyes. It wasn't that she felt that the girl was danger. Actually it was that the girl was using a similar ploy to the one that she used to use to make everyone think that she wasn't saddened by Inuyasha going after Kikiyo. The ebony haired woman was concerned about the girl because that mask was starting to crack at the edges. As her blue eyes followed the strawberry haired girl's progress she felt her husband take a seat next to her. "Kagome is there something wrong?" he asked even as he followed her gaze to Kaede's hut where Moriko had just gone in to rest.

"I think that she's hiding something, more than likely she's in pain. She seems to be hiding the fact from Rin and Sesshomaru. I don't think she wants to worry them and if that is the case then it is more than likely something that is killing her from within," Kagome theorized out loud her voice at a whisper knowing that with Inuyasha's heightened senses that was the loudest she had to talk for him to be able to pick it up, and no one but him would hear it.

"I guess that all we can do is watch and wait," the hanyou said in a rare show of thoughtfulness. Kagome merely nodded her eyes still watching the door way that the other had disappeared into moments ago.

I dreamed that I was sitting at a table filled with cakes, tea, and other delicacies. Around the table were those that I had failed to save. My father and mother both were at this table as were others that I couldn't protect from the actions of those that wanted to take what I was born with. I tried to open my mouth to speak, but it seemed as though my mouth was sewn shut and I couldn't utter even a sound. As I watched the party in front of me that I was part of yet at the same time separate from. I noticed that there were figures of those that I had known for a long time…my teacher, Rin, Jaken, and … my brother. The one person that I strove to protect the most sat of this table of those that I had failed.

Then the dream changed and I was standing on a cliff much like the ones that my father used to have us all camp out on when Shippo was a baby. The scene before me was one that will be engraved on my memory until the day that I die. It was the night that I was attacked the first time…

_I was sleeping my tiny body curled up tightly and snuggled in between my mother and father, little Shippo lay right next to me. I had woken from a nightmare and mother being an even lighter sleeper than father woke to my whimpers. She hushed me and started to sing, "__Dream my sweetheart of a love that is true, dream of someone coming to save you. A nightmare is nothing to face alone, never lose hope of finding your own. Sleep and tell me about what you dream, slumber and never let anyone wonder about your dreams, let them be free. Then you too shall be__." I smiled sleepily as I leaned my head against my mother's chest hearing her heart beat against my ear. _

_Just as I was about to go back to sleep I saw someone over my mother's shoulder, a centipede demon that clung to the side of the cliff face his face twisted into a demented grin. My eyes grew wide as I shook with new terror. My mother didn't even look behind her she growled at the one that she sensed coming near her family. "Give me the little Kubbyi and I shall not harm the rest of your family," it said. At the words Kuubyi my shaking grew more pronounced, so much so that my father woke. The words nine tails ringing in my head. I could tell that he was talking about me. _

_My father pushed my brother into my arms even as he stood and ran at the demon that was attacking and meant to take me away. As I ran down the tiny path with baby Shippo in my frail arms, I saw my father get thrown off the cliff and. I turned to see my mother lying in a pool of her blood as the demon's laughter filled the air. My mother's cerulean blue eyes met mine even through the bush blocking her way, and she mouthed one word to me, '__**Hide.**__' I ran instinctively into the dense underbrush shock coloring my mind a stark white. Once Father found us as dawn broke, a scream finally tore through my throat. _

I woke from my dream screaming, the sound curdling even my own blood. Pain stabbed throughout every single limb of my body. Paralyzing me even as I screamed in both pain and grief, I wasn't able to make a move or stop the sound that streamed from my mouth.

Even as I continued to scream I felt a comforting hand touch my arm. My eyes widened even as I took in where I was. I had been stuck in that white shock again, that frozen part of my mind that did not let me remember where I was. As my mind slowly caught up with the present circumstance I heard, Sesshomaur speaking in a quick voice to someone. "She's been having these attacks for years now from what I can tell. I remember her getting them at least once a moon when she first joined us, but last year they got progressively worse." My scream had softened some so that I was able to hear those around me.

"I see, Sesshomaru-san. Would there be any reason that she would be having one right now that you can think of?" Kaede said her raspy voice oddly soothing to my mind.

It wasn't my former teacher that spoke though it was Jaken. "Last year she got poisoned by a demon and spent almost a month ill to the point that we were unable to move from that location for a good length of time. The way that she looks right now is almost exactly like that of the time that she was ill after the demon infected her." He paused and I felt his scaly hand brush my cheek in uncharacteristic gentleness. "I fear that she has been hiding her condition from us for some time because this is ten times worse than that one was."

My eyes moved terrified that someone was going to be mad, but instead of that I saw Rin's face covered in tears as Sesshomaru's arm held her close and his eyes looked suspiciously wet. My scream stopped abruptly, but I had made an enormous effort to cut the sound off. "I'm not dying yet," I croaked out even as I struggled up from my position on the ground. They all looked at me in some shock even as I gained a slouched sitting position. "So who's going to start yelling first," I asked casting my eyes around the room taking in the fact that I could just make out my brother's tail in the door way to the outside.


	4. Looking deeper

Child of the Forest

Chapter 4

No one spoke for a while all of them were still gazing at me confound. The first to speak was actually the monk that was sitting at the far side of the room his face pensive. "What kind of demon was this Sesshomaru?" he asked his hands still in his lap even as his mind was probably running a mile a minute considering the fact that he was a strategist.

"It was a demon that's poison is selective. I fought it first, and it hit me with its poison sting, but I did not become ill for it. Moriko jumped into the battle to aid me thinking that the posion would cause me some difficulty even if I didn't show it. Niether of us counted on the fact that the posion was more than likely something that foxes weren't immune to were as dogs were. It was a huge variable that neither of us took into account. One that caused my student to take ill and she felt the need to hide this even from myself." My teacher was not happy, but I had known that he was going to be when he found out what I had done.

He was one of the only beings that I didn't have to worry about attacking me or trying to kill me for the power that it would grant him. He said and I quote the first time that we met, "You need not fear me Kuuybi. I see no need to kill children no matter their heritage." It was one of the reasons that I chose to trust him, that and as soon as I came out of my hiding place Rin appeared from behind him and started to fuss over me.

I turned my mind back to the present ignoring my pain as I had become so apt at doing. I leveled them all with my brown eyed gaze and spoke, rasping through my dry and raw throat, "I didn't say anything due to the fact that everyone was just recovering from defeating Naraku. It was my cross to bear and I do not regret it." They all looked at me as though I was stupid.

The one to telling me off was surprisingly enough the one person that I had not talked to since the very first day that I had arrived here. "Hiding your pain actually hurts those that you are trying to protect when you hide it," the boy who had held me after my collapse the other day said softly. "I did that once to Sango, even when I didn't remember her all of the time it was something that I tried to hide whenever I would encounter her and she did the same."

I gazed in shocked silence at the young man that I knew as Kohaku, the demon slayer, who now was looking at me with sorrowful brown eyes. I looked down at my lap my hands were clenched tightly trying and failing to hide the pain that was running rampant throughout my shaking frame. "Moriko-chan, why didn't you say anything," Rin asked her kind gaze still wet with tears. She was so saddened by the fact that her dearest friend had thought that it was better to hide the fact that she was slowly dying than to tell them.

"I didn't want any of you to know. It's hard enough keeping my own composure I didn't want to have any of you to have to feel the same pain that I have been feeling." I paused looking up then to meet each of their eyes in turn. "I never would wish this type of pain on anyone, in fact the only reason that I came was because I was warned through a vassal of Sesshomaru's that the creature that poisoned me was going to be coming here to target Shippo to draw me out." I unwittingly had started to growl my ears moving from the sides of my head to the top of it forming my fox ears. My tails too appeared behind me tossing themselves wildly in my agitation.

"Be still child," Kaede told me as she pressed a ceramic cup to my lips, the brew within smelling strongly of willow bark. I let her feed me the medicinal tea, and soon the pain ebbed. It did not fade though I could still feel it nagging at me though slightly less intense compared to before. As I sat there and the silence stretched on my vision became even hazier as my mind became fuzzy. Then the room went black and I passed out.

Kagome looked at the people in the room with sad eyes as they all stared at the now unconscious vixen. "She came back because she wanted to protect me," Shippo suddenly said breaking the nerve racking quiet.

"Aye, that is what she stated. But it be more than it would seem. She would have taken care not to be seen if that was the only thing that she had planned. Consider this young Shippo, she has been your unseen shadow since you were very young, why would she reveal herself now when she could have continued on as your shadow?" Kaede spoke with the wisdom of her age that caused the group to take into account this fact.

"That is very true," Songo said her eyes gaining a far off look that often happened when she thought of the past where the rest of her village was still among the living.

"If her only reason was to make sure that Shippo was safe she could have easily hid herself from me when I entered the forest. She is one of the only beings that I have ever met that can literally make the forest do her bidding," Sesshomaru stated breaking everyone's reverie at what Kaede had said.

"This may because she's gearing up for some kind of last stand sort of like what happened when Kagura tried to get away from Naraku that last time," Kohaku thoughtfully muttered this thoughts running pel-mel down a road that he saw no end to.

**Moon-chan: Hello, everyone! I know I'm really bad at updating…don't hurt me! Any way here is the newest chapter of Child of the Forest and I hope that you all enjoyed it. Just so there is no speculation, no, the demon wasn't Naraku, that bastard is staying dead! Any way let me know what you guys think, R+R= faster updates! Until next time, caio. **


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